Ontario Cup series #6 Blue Mountain

On Sunday 15th August I drove up to Blue Mountain ski resort in Collingwood for the final round of the Ontario Downhill series. I was real excited for the event, really had no idea what to expect but was looking forward to racing under no pressure to perform and just enjoy the days riding. I left Courtland at 3:45AM, got an early start to get there on time for registration as it was a 4 hour drive. Following the GPS made it easy, and 300kms later I arrived at Blue, before anything had evan been set up so I walked around taking some photees that you will see below.

We started riding at 9:00AM, took the ski lift up and took the first run nice and easy. They had changed the course a bit compared to the track we rode last weekend, some tight turns and a new rock garden section were added. Overall it was an awesome track, had a good mix of technical sections with sweeping turns, and some flat out sections that got really rough and rutted out. The course wasn't too long, times were expected to be around 2 minute 30. Practice runs were going well, managed to get in about 6 runs before noon (ski lifts sure beat getting thrashed about on the back of a van for 30 minutes!) I was having loads of fun and just loving the new experience of riding in another country, meet some awesome people and rode with some fast guys that had been following the whole series. My last run down before the final I got around half way where there is a steep forest section that took a sharp turn left and flattened out. I hit it faster than my previous runs, the suspension compressed and I heard a loud pop, next thing my rebound was just way to fast so I immediately knew what happened. I pulled over to find my bike covered in shock oil and my low speed compression adjuster was missing. I walked back up the track following the oil trail and picking up shock shrapnel. Definitely not the way I planned my final practice run. I went to the bike shop at the bottom to see weather they could help, but no luck. Was very disappointed to miss the race, would have been interesting comparing times to the other riders. But it's one of those things you have no control over so just had to accept the situation.

I decided to leave straight away and drive through to Walton, so another 3 hour road trip later
and I was there to watch some moto. It wasn't a complete waste of a day, got some good riding in until my shock blew, got to see alot of Canda's country side on my road trip, watched some moto and hung around to see them get loose at the after party Sunday night. All in all a good days activities!

Have a look at some photees from Blue, an amazing little village set up for skiing in the Winter and mountain biking in the summer.

Ride safe, TB

Blue Mountain Resort

On Saturday 7th August I traveled up to Blue mountain Resort in Collingwood with Adam Dahl and Craig Pollet. It's about a 3 hour drive from where I'm staying so we left early Saturday morning. I had no idea what to expect as I have never been to a mountain bike park before. I was real excited to get some riding done, havent been on the DH bike in a while. The resort was amazing, loads of people and village centre right near the ski lift. A 10 minute gondala ride got us to the top of the mountain where you have a choice of between 15 or so trails. We started off on the easier ones to get in the zone and get used to the bike again. From there I tried a couple differant trails then found two i really liked so spent most of the time riding on those. The one was called squeker, it was super fast and had real good flow. There were loads of roots crossing the track so it was fun trying differant lines by popping off them and keeping smooth. The other was called O-chute, it was alot steeper and had way more breaking bumps and rock sections. The final round of the Ontario Downhill cup will be taking place on that trail this coming weekend. I'm really hoping to compete, just organising lifts to Blue and back. Gotta make it happen coz it was awesome being back on the bike again, especially to ride trails like that! Check out a video of a trail named "Halo" on my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=871575034#!/video/video.php?v=10150243517880035&ref=mf

Ride safe, TB

Gopher Dunes mx national #5

Hey dudes

So this past weekend was my first Canadian Moto-x national. Was blown away by the scale of the event ranging from the amount of riders participating, size of the crowds spectating, team pits and rigs, and the skill of all the riders that entered. Liam rode like a champ, he had an amazing start in the first moto, was running fourth for about 15 minutes until he was taken out by fifth position in one of the corners. He got up quickly but battled to start his bike so that just wasted time and you could see alot of energy trying to get the 450 started again. it eventually fired up and he rode as best he could to finish 24th or so. Second heat he got a good start but not as fast as his first moto, he was mid pack and managed to work his way up to fifth position. He stayed there for most of the race until he was passed by Dusty Klatt and the dude that took him out in the first heat. He finished 7th so that put him in 13th overall for the day. I thought he rode super well considering he had an injured ankle for the first and second heat and he managed to push through the pain and disappointment of the first moto. Next race I'm confident he will get the top 5 position that he is chasing. The track got so beat up and rough, apparently it's one of the toughest in the season and I saw why!

The following Monday we got to meet Ricky Carmichael when he came out to Gopher dunes to run a training clinic alongside Liam, his team mates Mitch and Josh and track owner Derek. He's a super friendly guy and it amazed me how much time he had for the fans like us! I'm looking forward to watching the final two Nationals of the season in the up coming weeks. Check some pics from the days racing!

Ride safe,TB

Photees